Kottayam church demands implementation of Church Bill

Kottayam: Even as the heads of various denominations of the Church in Kerala and some laity organizations have come up against the proposed Church Act, a parish church here is firm in its stand for implementing the church act, that too not the proposed Act but the Kerala Christian Church Properties and Institutions Trust Bill, 2009 prepared by a panel chaired by Justice V R Krishna Iyer. The 2009 Bill had in fact laid down stricter rules than the recommendations in the proposed Act prepared by the present law reforms committee headed by Justice K T Thomas. It was the managing committee of the St John the Baptist Church at Kumarakom, popularly known as Attamangalam Pally, which met last week, decided to send their recommendations in this regard to the law reforms commission. The church established in 1853 with over 650 families as members is one of the prominent parishes of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church. The managing committee of the church had unanimously decided to support the implementation of the church act last year and had send a memorandum to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan about implementing the Bill prepared in 2009, said V S Kuriakose, former trustee and present managing committee member. The members of the church had also joined a march taken out to the secretariat last year demanding the implementation of the same, he added. The trustee of the church P V Abraham said that the managing committee had mailed their recommendations to the Justice K T Thomas-headed panel. Though the church had welcomed the present Church Act saying that it was aimed at ensuring fair and transparent administration of the properties and funds of the churches in Kerala and provides remedies for maladministration, it maintained that the proposed Bill was silent on the establishment, maintenance of the institution and management and administration of its own affairs. They recommended the panel to look into the Bill of 2009 and include the provisions laid out there in the present Bill.

Monitoring of the accounts by any government agency, imposing penalty for the violation of any provisions, need for annual budget, etc. are some of the recommendations of the church. The church also raises the demand for the constitution of a general law which governs the administration of the churches. It says that without a general law the proposed church tribunal by the present commission may not be competent to decide the issues in an effective manner. Abraham added that the parish members are the sole owners of the parish and not the higher levels of church. “It is the people in an area who buy land and build a church. So they are the owners,” he said. He also said that the auditing of his church accounts is done by a chartered accountant and they are filing IT returns annually.